swedes aren't supposed to celebrate halloween, but since kids want more candy, teenagers want more excuses to dress up as vampires and many grown ups need excuses to gather their old friends and watch b-grade horror movies we sort of celebrate it anyway. i tried to make some halloween pictures with the scariest things i can imagine - masks - but they didn't turn out very well. i will post one of them here, but only as a mood setter for what i really hope we could be doing in this thread: tell cosy-scary stories! nothing really bad, please, i need to be able to sleep in the nights, but anything that's scary on a still cosy level is most welcome. i love hearing stories, so please please tell us some, fellow gimp chat members!

and here's my little stories, they all have something to do with the movie "the ring".
i don't know if you have seen the movie called "the ring". it's made from a japanese original and it tells the story of a very special video tape that somehow got into circulation. the video tape shows nothing but a sequence of short movie cuts, somewhat eerie, ending with a ring of light. the people who watch it may get irritated that it wasn't the movie they thought they had bought or rented, but they will probably not think more of it. then, one week after they saw the video sequence, they will die mysteriously. in the end of "the ring" it is revealed that a girl who died some cruel death (i don't remember how) somehow gets into people's homes by their tv sets and takes their lives - real horror movie stuff, the girl has long, trailing, dirty black hair and doesn't look like someone you'd want to meet in the middle of the night. then the movie finishes off with the full video sequence that we assume the people in the movie saw one week before they died. here's what happened to two people of overactive imaginations who saw the movie "the ring":
i saw the movie with some of my best friends in a light and airy flat in the summer. i was deifinitely not scared above my comfort level and didn't have a thought about counting down the week after i had seen it. but autumn came and around halloween time i sat with some of my friends at crafts and design school in our common kitchen talking horror movies and someone mentioned the ring. after that i had a night of nightmares and couldn't really get the movie out of my mind. one week after that i was in norway for a short holiday. my father works in norway now and then and he and my mother rents a small house the weeks he works. i was there to visit them and slept on the sofa in their small combined kitchen and living room. now, my room at crafts and design school was a bit drafty and full of creaking old wood boards and housed in a (small and comparatively new, but still) castle that some people swore was haunted and that didn't exacty help me get rid of my nightmares of "the ring", so i thought my chances of a good nights sleep were better in a newly built house with my parents sleeping next door. but in the middle of the night, i woke up and found to my horror that the tv-set facing the sofa where i slept had turned on of its own accord! the first thing i thought of was of course "the ring" and i screamed loudly.
the story ends well. my parents told me that happened a lot with that tv-set and told me to unplug it before i went to sleep in the nights. no girl with dirty black hair trailing after her came creeping out of the tv to get me and i was of course very much ashamed of myself.

my sisters friend, let's call her emma, had been stupid enough to go with some friends to the movies and see "the ring", though she was extremely easily scared and never watched horror movies if she could avoid it. but she had worked long and hard on not letting her imagination take over and she thought she thought she was doing well, not many nightmares in the week after seeing the movie and she didn't get a minor heart attack every time she heard an unexpected noise. she was actually quite fine and very proud of hereself for it. then, one late evening, she sat reading in her parents' living room. suddenly, she heard a slight noise and looked up from her book. the tv-set - one of those big, heavy things, placed on a bench with wheels - was turned away from where she was sitting, but now she saw it moving very slowly and turning to face her! she instantly remembered that exactly one week ago she had seen "the ring". and here she was, with a tv-set turning around to face her of its own accord. she knew what would follow: the tv would turn on to war of the ants or snowstorm or whatever you prefer to call it, then the video sequence from "the ring" would start and then that girl with the long black hair would get out into the living room and head towards her... strangely enough, emma was actually not screaming. she was way past screaming. she was convinced the story in "the ring" was actually true and she was preparing to face her death. then her younger sister, who hadn't seen "the ring" and didn't know anything about it, came out from her hiding place, somewhere behind the tv. emma hadn't known her sister was at home and hadn't seen her when she started to move the tv, thinking it would be a good joke on her easily scared big sister. she came out of hiding because it was no fun when her sister didn't scream in panic as she usually would.

the moral of these stories is: don't be stupid. your imagination will definitely play tricks on you if you let it, but girls with supernaturally long hair climbing out of a tv-set belong in japanese horror movies, they're not for real - not even around halloween .

Life is a scary story.

gms9810: yes, sadly it is. but life isn't often scary in an entertaining way as the stories i had hoped for here!

One day I woke up and looked in the mirror...!!!

Epilogue - I went to the kitchen cupboard only to find that somebody had exchanged my jar of coffee for a box of.....TEABAGS!!!!!!

Hope that's not too scary AnMal.

well i have no Halloween histories but looking on my DA i found some that may be scary, and has even a illustration

it is about the



Every myth reflect some true.
We don't know if never was a Pandora box in the real world...but if was one could not contain nothing more dangerous of the Pandora Swarm that evolved from the Pandora Algae

Starting from the 1 world war in the depth of the Oceans the most ancient coralline reefs started to notice the raising amount of metals ( before boats were mostly of wood ) and tried to integrate at best in their diet

At first didn't worked well because was mostly iron, iron is too hard to metabolize
But then start to arrive more and more digital camera, computer, smart phones...all coming even if indirectly from the Silicon Valley ..and so containing the best silicon and all sort of rare metals and hydrocarbons

So they start to assimilate and metabolize more and more easily raising amount of silicon,while the raising amount of toxic and nuclear waste in the Ocean depth helped to create the optimal amount of pollution and radiation , speeding up the evolution process and helping the digestion

Last the Pandora Algae learned how use the silicon not only as raw aliment, but instead to assimilate and to integrate as modular component , restoring and enhancing more and more the original functions of the silicon chips

Now the Pandora Swarm is the ruler, on the very top of the evolution tree, and totally control 2/3 of the planet Earth...A space sufficiently large till now, that include everything deep under the water

But now the Pandora Swarm is getting curious to see if there is something outside the Ocean
..maybe there some tasty carbon based life form , as young puffy children , some more chips as from iphone computers and cameras and some spicy Nuclear waste, to combine for a ideal diet ?

................................................................................................

photo comix: good story and great illustration!! thank you for actually telling a story, that's much appreciated .

erisian: oh no, not too scary at all! you looking in the mirror was a bit on the scary side of course (just think of it from a viewers perspective - there would have been two of you!) and i admit the coffee was so scary it might have given me nightmares - but when everything ended on a happy note with teabags how could i possibly stay scared ?

This was one of our favorite sleep-over stories and someone had to tell it whenever a new friend was in the sleep-over group.

A young couple, Mike and Jill, bought an old mansion even though they were warned that it was haunted and unusual noises were heard during the night. The young couple wanted to make it into a bed and breakfast and the price was right for them.

One evening it was dark and cloudy and the wind was moaning through the trees and suddenly the power went off. They would have been left in total darkness except for the cheery fire in the fireplace so they felt quite cozy. Jill found some candles, put them in holders and lit them for more light.

They were gazing dreamily into the fire when they both heard a very faint, “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!”

“It's got to be the trees hitting the house in the wind,” said Mike.

As they sat there, they again heard, “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!,” this time a bit louder.

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning, rain poured down in torrents, tree branches scraped at the window like bony fingers and then a loud, KA-BOOM! of thunder rolled over the house. Again, they heard, “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” This time much louder.

“I'm going to find out what that is,” exclaimed Mike, as he picked up a candle in a holder.

“Don't you leave me here alone,” cried Jill as she tucked her arm into his. “I'm going with you.”

They tiptoed around the first floor, peering into rooms and closets, under things, everywhere, and the rapping got louder and louder. “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!”

Up the rickety, creaking stairs they slowly crept, Mike holding the sputtering candle aloft. “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” It pounded in their ears as they explored the second floor.

One more flight of stairs. The wavering candle light made moving shadows on the walls as they moved around the third floor. “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!”

Now the noise was deafeningly loud. It sounded like it was coming from overhead. Peering up at the ceiling, they saw the pull for the attic stairs. It sounded like the noise was coming from the attic.

Gingerly, Mike pulled down the folding attic stairs and together Mike and Jill tremulously stepped up into the attic. Cobwebs hung down in dusty strands and intermittently behind blowing clouds a little moonlight shown through the dusty attic window.

“Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” “Wrap! Wrap! Wrap!” The noise was frantic and overwhelming.

Mike held up the guttering candle, the noise sounded like it was coming from a closet across the attic. Mike and Jill slowly crept to the closet and gingerly, Jill took hold of the handle on the closet door while holding tightly to Mike's free hand. Just as she started to pull open the door the candle went out. The only light they had was faint moonlight behind shreds of blowing dark clouds.

“WRAP! WRAP! WRAP!” “WRAP! WRAP! WRAP!” “WRAP! WRAP! WRAP!” “WRAP! WRAP! WRAP!” The noise was deafening.

Jill yanked open the door. Sudden silence surrounded them. A flash of lightning lightened the room. Then they could hear the TV. The power had come back on. A dangling light cord hit Jill in the face and she gave it a yank. Luckily the bulb was still good and it pierced the gloom in the attic.

They fearfully peered into the closet and to their great astonishment they saw

well i am not sure this story will scare any one but it is still a puzzle to me how this happen...at the time this event happen, i owned a 1973 chevy pick up truck. well i work from 2pm til 10pm. so when i get off work, it is night when i travel home...on this night it was raining, not a heavy down pour, but enough rain to have to use the windshield wipers. well my wipers at this time were needing to be replaced and the one on the passenger side of my truck really needed to be replaced. it at times would come off when the wipers were on. well on my way home, yep, it happen. the wiper on the passenger side came off, so i stopped along the road to re attach it so that my wiper arm would not damage my windshield before i arrived home. keep in mind, this vehicle did not have a delay on the wipers like most all modern day cars and trucks have now. and the switch to turn them off and on is in a position to where if any thing fell off the dash it would not hit it to cause my wipers to come on or be switched off. so i pull off the road, it's dark, it's raining. the place i pull off at doesn't have very good light either. almost the only light is the lights from my truck and they wasn't very good..so i get out, but before i do i turn off the windshield wipers cause the one that came off is still on the windshield just laying there at the base of the windshield.. i get out, walk around the front of my truck, when i get to the passenger side i see the windshield wiper and reach for the wiper.....and then it happen......my wipers came on...out of the blue my windshield wipers came on..i stood in shock for a second. i was how like "how did that happen"...to this day i still can not figure out how my wipers got turned on...yes i know its not that spooky of a story. but keep in mind,,there's no way they could have come on unless someone turned them on with the switch and i was the only one there and i was no where near the switch. i left my door open to. so me shutting my door, which you had to shut pretty hard to get it to shut didn't trigger the wipers.....so just wanted to share my story...i still can't figure it out...and it did kinda freak me out...still does..lol

O: good one!!! it's the kind you can easily tell to kids, so i will remember this one for when the godchildren grow up a bit and start wanting scary stories . it actually reminds me a little bit of the one that baby sis told her delighted older sisters when she was no more than three years old. here's her story:

*told in a three year old's most dramatic and scary voice* "a girl was out walking. she walked through a dark, dark forest.she came to a dark, dark house. she opened a dark, dark door and came to a dark, dark room. in the room was a dark, dark staircase and she walked up the dark, dark staircase. she came to another, dark, dark room and walked through a dark, dark door ..... (some dark, dark rooms with dark, dark doors later:) ... in the dark, dark room, there was a dark, dark wardrobe and in the dark, dark wardrobe there was a dark, dark coffin with a cross on it! and in the dark, dark coffin there was a dark, dark, nice and tasty chocolate cake!"

one of the best scary stories i've heard til date .

(by the way, O, i love your avatar !)

rdgracer: spooky! i'm glad it didn't happen to me, i have an overactive imagination and i would have been really scared .

This happened to me around the end of 1945 in Indonesia.
At night single Indonesian freedom fighters were invading the Dutch parts of the town.
I had visited friends and around midnight I walked home.
I passed a vacant lot overgrown with very high grass on a corner.
Somebody could easily hide in the grass.
I heard the sound of the bolt of a rifle and got an acid taste in my mouth because I thought I'd get shot.
I had survived a Jap concentration camp for nothing.
My thoughts were what can I do to avoid being shot but no place to hide,nothing.
So I kept walking.

But nothing happened and when I rounded the corner I saw someone trying to start a motorcycle with the kickstarter.
That was the "rifle bolt".

Gerard.

The scariest things I have to do is confront one of the worlds most deadly snakes on my back door step...or one of the gazillion spiders that inhabits this land...few days ago we had a centipede scurrying across our patio...about 8 inches long and half inch thick...that was scary.... http://www.ento.csiro.au/education/alli ... opoda.html
I've never done Halloween as its not really something we do here but is becoming more popular as the years go by...the thing is...most people who do it here really have no idea what the meaning of it all is but just go with the merchandising etc for the heck of it...now thats scary in itself!!!